The Off Season Roster Formation Plan

[E-Light]

Now, we have a lot of work to do to reform our roster this off season.

Right now our roster sits a pathetic

PG- Snow
SG- Newble/Harris/Luke/Sasha/Jiri
SF- James
PF- Gooden/Varejao
C- none

Not very pretty.

Tractor/Diop are our only free agents we may consider resigning.

F U J-mac!

Now, the most important parts to a team are its point guard, and its center/PF.

Most great teams have had either a great big, or a great point to lead them.

While I see the cavs looking to resign Z, i think they see him as someone who slows the team down, can be a black hole in the offense at times, and someone who if his shot isn't falling he's useless, Gilbert has hatred for Z. :chuckles:

So, with them having these views, they sign, and trade Z for Ray Allen. We get our shooter, and seattle gets the post threat Nate McMillian has wanted. Now, if I were the cavs I'd try to dump snows contract onto Seattle, may be offer to take on Danny Fortson(who seattle has been trying to dump), whose contract only goes on for 3 more years rather than 4, or 5. Fortson has been a headache to seattle and they try to get rid of him, but no one wants him. We'd take on fortsons attitude too, but we could use an attitude like his on the team, brings out toughness. He'd be our goon next to traylor.

So lets say this now. Bear with me.

PG- LeBron James/Jiri
SG- Ray Allen/Newble
SF- Luke Jackson/Sasha
PF- Drew/AV
C- AV/Fortson

Alright, what i've done so far is maintained cap flexibility.

We still have 6-8 million to spend.

Now, I'd go after a point guard in the free agency pool. Obviously Duhon is the best of the point guards, I'd try to throw a starting salary of 3-4 million at duhon just to see if the bulls would match. If they did, I'd then set my sights on Memphis' Earl Watson Both Duhon, and Watson protect the ball, and are very good defensively, exactly what we need at the point guard position!

You may have seen I've moved LeBron to point guard. Luke, and Ray Allen can help bring the ball up the court to take some pressure off lebron, both Luke, and Allen have good ball handling skills So, essentially we have 3 guys with point guard skills, that can be unselfish on the floor, leading to good ball movement. Not to mention LeBron would have the ball in his hands, with threats running along side him, this is ideal.

So, if we were to get one of duhon, or watson I'd then go after another big man now. Swift would be available, but if we signed him this would put us at just about our cap limit, which is fine, but I'd rather get a center than another PF. Following the plan for ugly big men with limited skill, I'd go after a Jerome James type. Or I'd try to trade Sasha for a late first round pick(hopefully we could get an earlier pick :chuckles: ) to get Johan Petro, a 7' frenchman with shot blocking ability.

I might try to trade gooden for a pick too, but, may be throw him out there to see if we can get high enough to draft a point guard early, so we won't have to get one in free agency, leaving us with more cap room to sign bigs.

I'd also try to resign diop, sure he's slop, but good enough for a guy who will be last off the bench.

Resign Traylor too.

Now, we've filled the majority of our needs.

We got our shooter, Allen, and Luke for next year.
We got a play maker at the point guard position, LeBron.
We have ugly big men, who can rebound, fortson, AV,jerome james/petro.


so now the roster looks like this.

James/pick or watson
Allen/Newble
Luke/Jiri
Gooden, or AV/Traylor
Jerome James or Petro/Fortson/Diop/

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With this plan we can only hope Jiri can regain his confidence in the off season, and that we could have the chance at a roster like this. It doesn't look much better than what we had this year, but the chemistry that this team would have may help make it better than it should be.

What I like is we have combined 2 superstars in LeBron, and Allen, this is good. :chuckles: We don't have a post threat, but I don't think management is too concerned with that, they want to build a defensive front court, and let lebron do the posting up. We definately will have mismatches with this team in the back court.

Rome isn't built in a day but this off season looks good to me for the future. We also have a lot of good cap flexibility in the future with this roster.

With this team I can see us building toward the future, and building a team that can score a lot, and yet not give up on playing defense, which is ideal. Solid D, with cerebral O will git er donn.

I can see the new regime pulling something like this off this off season if they decide to build a team that Z is not included on.

 

[Glen Infante]

Another great post E.

It really hurts me to not see Z as our starting Center next season. It really leaves a big glaring hole and to see it filled with a Fortson or a J.James doesn't satisfy me a bit.

I wish there was a way to keep Z and get a reliable shooter like Ray Allen, but it seems impossible. :cry:

 

[The Disector]

Would anyone else be interested in grabbing Glen Robinson this offseason.

I think he fits what we need perfectly for a lot less then some of the other free agents.

A good shooter and scorer who could definitely open the floor for LeBron and the rest of his teammates.

 

[Glen Infante]

Glenn Robinson wouldn't be bad off the bench. He is a veteran, and knows how to score in numorous ways. The question is, will he stay healthy? He is like another Jamal Mashburn.

 

[Pioneer10]

The problem is Glenn is a small forward who can't really play the 4 or 2. That is Lebron's position (hopefully) for the next decade or so. Glenn won't be seeing enough minutes to make the money worthwhile

 

[The Disector]

I kind of think LeBron can play the 2 or the 3 and at the very least Glen could be a valuable piece off of the bench and if he works out possibly a surprise starter.

 

[aggressivestyle]

I rather keep Z if we can get him to sign 10 mil starting for 4 yrs.

heres a good story about j james(big snacks). Is this all an act? or is this legit? that is literally the million dollar question
3 page story

After all, this was a man whose nickname is Big Snacks.

This is a man who once answered coach Nate McMillan's accusation of a selfish attitude by saying, "I don't even know what he is talking about, I just worry about Jerome."

This is a man who once fell asleep in a film session, then said he didn't really fall asleep, he just "nodded off."

This is a man who was late to practice one day when it snowed, saying he could not get out of his driveway. He drives a Hummer.

The tipping point, he said, came when his mother called him a week after the season.

"I didn't raise you like that, Jerome," James says his mother told him. "Me and your Daddy didn't raise you like that. You are cussing at referees. You are always cussing and fussing at your teammates. We didn't raise you like that. Now I don't know what you picked up in them streets when you was out there, but you need to forget about that because that is not your foundation."

"I mean, that's my Mama," James recalled. "To hear Mama hurt, that has to hit home. You know you can't argue with your Mama. When Mama says something, you better be quiet and listen."

 

[aggressivestyle]

i still would like to get yell marshall some how...he would spread the floor and he's also a good rebounder. But i see him getting more than the mle. I seriously don't think we should go that route if he's gonna cost alot.

how about mobley? he said he would like 2 stay with SAC but he still gonna decine his player option. If we can't get JJ,allen,simmons than these 2 players come to mind.

Korver- a dollar over the mle would grab him.

Tops in 3pts. made
3rd in 3 points attempted
.405 3p%


Mobley- vet player that has a sweet stroke

3rd in 3p% at .432

14th in 3p made.

 

[Glen Infante]

We wouldn't need Korver, we have Luke Jackson.

Cuttino is a very solid shooter, but I don't think Sac is going to let him slip. The aquired him to play next to Mike Bibby (their new franchise player).

 

[TheAdmin]

We wouldn't need Korver, we have Luke Jackson.

What we have is a 2nd year player coming off of a career threatening injury who showed nothing during his short rookie year. Who knows what he can or can't do next season?

If we can get either Mobley or Korver for just over the MLE then you jump all over it. If Jackson does pan out, then your bench is that much deeper, if he doesn't pan out then you at least have a quality starter.

 

[Glen Infante]

But wouldn't adding Korver just put a log jam into the wing posistion? I mean we already have Pav/Jiri/Newble/Bron/Jackon all playing the wing.

 

[Karma]

I dont think a one dimensional player like Korver is worth the chase. Paying him over the MLE would be ridiculous. Mobley is an option, but he is behind the pack of Allen, Johnson, Redd, Simmons and Hughes as preferred targets.

As for bigs, I believe it to be a no brainer to bring Traylor back. We are not resigning him, but just taking up his option, which is very cheap. We then have a guarenteed 3 man rotation with Gooden and Varejao signed for next season. Then we come to Ilgauskas. He is either resigned or traded. If he is resigned, we just need to find some cheap big to fill in the odd minutes ala Scott Williams and Diops role. Diop is not an option. If Z is traded, we must get a big in return. If its a power forward, then we have 4 natural power forwards, of which we may have to do some dealing with t get a true center.

Now at the swing and point spots. Currently we have Newble, Sasha, Luke and Jiri vying for backup minutes behind LeBron and our prized FA. This to me spells trade. All four to me can be traded, meaning any of the four. We can move up to 2. Newble to me probably wont be one due to his contract. Luke has some value out there, just like Sasha. Jiri unfortunately diminished his value all season long. The trading of whoever should to me bring either a draft pick, point guard, or another big. Keep Eric Snow. I cant see him being traded anyways with his long deal, but he does providethis team with leadership, and just a strong positive influence. This to me is vital in a young squad.

Plenty to talk about, but thats me for now.

 

[TheAdmin]

Out of that list there is only 1 starter. Pav/Jiri/Jackson and Newble are at best backups. Korver/Mobley are actual upgrades that have produced. You just can't keep plugging the hole at the 2 guard spot with subpar players.

Pavlovic or Jackson might pan out but the Cavs have a short time to build a contender and they can't wait for either to develope, so if you can spend just over the league average on a player you know will produce, you do it.

I would rather have a glut of talent at a position then a glut of backups in my starting rotation.

 

[Fundamentals]

What is this that people keep talking about Luke developing? Take out this year due to injury, but he was a four-year player in college, he wasn't some high school kid. He should be able to contribute right off the bat next year, assuming he is healthy. Sasha could use some developmental time, but I like him as well. Sadly, one of them will probably be dealt, but they both could be VERY good NBA players.

 

[Dungong]

Luke is a big question mark. No one on the team expected him to come out and contribute right away last year, and its probably the same next year. If he contributes, it will be down the line, the guy has been out of the game for a year and needs some experience. He has the potential right now to play the spot up 3 point shooter role though, so we can lay off one dimensional guys like korver

I think its going to come down to having either Z or one of the big time FA SG's like Redd, Allen, Hughes. We already had a season with Lebron and Z, that didn't work. Gilbert doesn't seem to be too bashful about making changes so I think Z is gone and we'll try to get one of those three. Course, I dont see why any of those guys would leave their teams.

And Lebron needs to stay at one position. The guy is tired enough playing 48 minutes, having him defend the point, bring up the ball, and play as much as he does probably wont work. I like the idea of the ball being in his hands, but he can still do that at the 3, as long as the coach next year actually installs an offense. I mean seriously, did the Cavs have an offense last year? Half their half court sets were give the ball to Lebron. Their "play" was double screen for Lebron then give it to Lebron. We need a Rip Hamilton type guy that can move without the ball. A real offense would have drastically improved the team. I think Silas did nothing but the tip drill in practice or something.

So if Z goes and a shooting guard is signed, then I think we'll probably end up like almost every other team in the east and play with a center who's a garbage guy thats basically there to be tall and not really part of the offense. But its the east and theres really only a handful of the traditional dominant centers left so this could work.